Much has been written about whether Congressional candidate Bill Lynch will benefit from his brother Patrick's decision to drop out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary. But Patrick's decision could have far broader impacts on the political landscape.

To wit: without an expensive, highly contested Democratic primary for governor, candidates for Congress and statewide office have a much better chance of poking through the election-year chatter to reach voters.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, candidate for governor, scored a key labor endorsement a couple of weeks ago from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 328. But Lynch, who has been courting labor and other progressives as he mounts a run to the left of Democratic rival Frank Caprio, has a labor problem.

He recently announced opposition to a bill that would allow Deepwater Wind to circumvent the state's Public Utilities Commission in building a small wind farm, precursor to a much larger project.

The pronouncements of political scientists don't always square with reality. But one oft-repeated bit of punditry in the run-up to the gubernatorial race is proving quite prescient: it's hard to run for governor from the attorney general's chair. Criminal probes often attract unwanted controversy. And that's certainly in evidence with this morning's exhaustive piece in the ProJo about Attorney General Patrick Lynch's friendship with Central Falls Mayor Charles M.

As reported here last week, Governor Carcieri was part of a group of 20 governors who penned a letter voicing opposition to the EPA's planned regulation of greenhouse gases. Attorney General Patrick Lynch is now blasting the governor for the move:

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has sent Governor Carcieri a copy of a letter he has written to Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation to counter Carcieri’s participation in a multi-state letter in which Carcieri, along with 19 other governors, stated that the EPA should not regulate greenhouse gas emissions but should be restricted to merely offering input.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio has focused his campaign, almost exclusively, on boosting small business and the local economy - though he hasn't offered much by way of detailed plans. Rival Patrick Lynch tries to carve out his own territory here with the rollout of the beginnings of an economic plan that focuses on small business and a job training initiative he's calling ReTool Rhode Island.

The ProJo has a short piece on the inside pages today on Frank Caprio's gubernatorial campaign releasing results on a single question from a campaign poll: Caprio, according to the campaign, has a 17-point lead on his Democratic rival, Patrick Lynch, among likely Democratic primary voters.

The topline figures in last week's WPRI-TV poll were not great news for Attorney General Patrick Lynch, as he tries to outmanuever Treasurer Frank Caprio for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The poll gave Caprio higher job performance ratings and had him virtually tied with independent Lincoln Chafee in a general election matchup.

Patrick Lynch's campaign issued a press release this morning titled "Caprio to Run as a Republican?," which cites a radio interview with John Dodenhoff, former campaign manager for Steve Laffey, suggesting that a Frank Caprio campaign representative approached him about running as a Republican.

The press release goes on to suggest that Caprio is too conservative for the Democratic Party.

Before Democratic gubernatorial candidates Frank Caprio and Patrick Lynch filed their quarterly campaign finance reports yesterday, we knew the broad outlines: Lynch, who has trailed Caprio by a wide margin in fundraising to date, was finally raising money at roughly the same pace as his rival.

Patrick Lynch has been, by far, the most aggressive voice in the nascent gubernatorial campaign. Today he takes a swipe at Governor Carcieri and his "trickle-down economics" in anticipation of the governor's State of the State address - a red-meat attack for the hardcore Democrats Lynch is trying to court in the primary - and touts anew a plan to overhaul the state's economic development strategy:

Boston PhoenixLynchtasticPublished 1/18/2011 by David Scharfenberg
Am I the only one looking forward to Patrick Lynch, candidate for governor in 2014, answering questions about his brother's medical marijuana operation? This should...